Fjodor2001
Diamond Member
Hi,
Since I'm evaluating what OS I'm going to use on my server, I ran a couple of network file transfer performance tests when the server was using Windows 7 vs WHS (Windows Home Server). The results were quite interesting! See below:
Test hardware:
-Client computer: Core2Duo E6600 / 6 GB RAM / 1 TB Samsung HD103UJ drive.
-Server computer: Intel D510MO motherboard with onboard Atom D510 CPU / 2 GB RAM / 2 TB Samsung HD203WI drive.
-Client & server both connected to a Netgear GS108T Gigabit switch.
NOTE1: The client OS was always Windows Vista SP2. The server OS was Windows 7 64-bit for the first test round, and then Windows Home Server (with Power Pack 3) for the second test round. Both computers were always idling apart from performing the test tasks.
NOTE2: The CPU does not seem to have been a limiting factor, since the CPU load was quite low on both computers during the tests (max ~20-25% on both D510 cores). The exception was during the first phase of Test 3 when the client was unzipping files and the E6600 was @ close to 100% CPU load.
Tests:
Test 1: Copy one single 4 GB file from client to server.
-Windows 7: 40 sec
-WHS: 70 sec
Test 2: Copy one single 4 GB file from the server to the client.
-Windows 7: 45 sec
-WHS: 45 sec
Test 3: Unzip one 1.85 GB zip archive (3.15 GB uncompressed, ~31000 files) on client to server.
-Windows 7: 14 min 30 sec
-WHS: 24 min
Test 4: Move the unzipped files from Test3 (i.e. 3.15 GB data, ~31000 files) from server to client.
-Windows 7: 16 min
-WHS: 33 min 45 sec
Test 5: Move the unzipped files from Test3 (i.e. 3.15 GB data, ~31000 files) from client to server.
Windows 7: 10 min
WHS: 14 min 45 sec
Comments:
Apparently the network file transfer performance has improved quite a bit with Windows 7. My guess is that this is due to the fact that Windows 7 uses the SMB 2.1 protocol for network file transfers, where as WHS uses the SMB 1 protocol. (Note: In this case the Windows 7 tests have actually used the SMB 2 protocol, since Windows Vista which was used on the client only supports SMB 2, so to be correct the performance increase likely comes from SMB 2 vs SMB 1). For more info on the SMB protocol versions, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block.
Feel free to comment!
Since I'm evaluating what OS I'm going to use on my server, I ran a couple of network file transfer performance tests when the server was using Windows 7 vs WHS (Windows Home Server). The results were quite interesting! See below:
Test hardware:
-Client computer: Core2Duo E6600 / 6 GB RAM / 1 TB Samsung HD103UJ drive.
-Server computer: Intel D510MO motherboard with onboard Atom D510 CPU / 2 GB RAM / 2 TB Samsung HD203WI drive.
-Client & server both connected to a Netgear GS108T Gigabit switch.
NOTE1: The client OS was always Windows Vista SP2. The server OS was Windows 7 64-bit for the first test round, and then Windows Home Server (with Power Pack 3) for the second test round. Both computers were always idling apart from performing the test tasks.
NOTE2: The CPU does not seem to have been a limiting factor, since the CPU load was quite low on both computers during the tests (max ~20-25% on both D510 cores). The exception was during the first phase of Test 3 when the client was unzipping files and the E6600 was @ close to 100% CPU load.
Tests:
Test 1: Copy one single 4 GB file from client to server.
-Windows 7: 40 sec
-WHS: 70 sec
Test 2: Copy one single 4 GB file from the server to the client.
-Windows 7: 45 sec
-WHS: 45 sec
Test 3: Unzip one 1.85 GB zip archive (3.15 GB uncompressed, ~31000 files) on client to server.
-Windows 7: 14 min 30 sec
-WHS: 24 min
Test 4: Move the unzipped files from Test3 (i.e. 3.15 GB data, ~31000 files) from server to client.
-Windows 7: 16 min
-WHS: 33 min 45 sec
Test 5: Move the unzipped files from Test3 (i.e. 3.15 GB data, ~31000 files) from client to server.
Windows 7: 10 min
WHS: 14 min 45 sec
Comments:
Apparently the network file transfer performance has improved quite a bit with Windows 7. My guess is that this is due to the fact that Windows 7 uses the SMB 2.1 protocol for network file transfers, where as WHS uses the SMB 1 protocol. (Note: In this case the Windows 7 tests have actually used the SMB 2 protocol, since Windows Vista which was used on the client only supports SMB 2, so to be correct the performance increase likely comes from SMB 2 vs SMB 1). For more info on the SMB protocol versions, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Message_Block.
Feel free to comment!
Last edited:
